These new calendar features just made Microsoft Outlook far more clever

Outlook app has benefited from the demise of Sunrise

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Sunrise has, well, shall we say it has set, with the news that the calendar app (pictured above) has been retired by Microsoft – but the good news is that some of its features and design elements have been transferred over to the Outlook iOS and Android apps, which have just been revamped.

This wasn't really a surprise, as four months ago, the Sunrise team announced that Microsoft was moving them on to work on Outlook, and their app would be shut down soon.

But as mentioned, the new Outlook apps have taken a fair bit on board, in terms of a redesign and icons which will certainly look familiar to Sunrise users – the latter pop up when you create an event and type something like 'dinner', so you'll get a visual indicator of that event (a knife and fork in this case).

Microsoft has also overhauled Outlook's date and time pickers with a new look (see below) that makes using them easier and more intuitive, and the company notes this is the result of bringing Sunrise's design expertise across.

Show me the way

Other new features include directions to events: when you create an event, you can specify its location, and a map is attached which you can tap on to bring up directions from your preferred maps app.

With the new Outlook apps, it's also now possible to edit recurring meetings and update multiple events with any changes all in one go, and there's further Skype integration, with the ability to fire up Skype for Business meetings directly from your mobile device.

Finally, a new feature called 'Interesting Calendars' lets you sign up to specific calendars such as that of the sports team you happen to support.

As for Sunrise users, updates for the app have already ceased, and today you'll be logged out of your account – and that will be that, as they say. However, the Sunrise team notes that: "Don't worry … all the information held in your calendar will still be available on the original platform you were using (Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, etc)."